Egypt rallies support for Palestinians at U.N.

BELGRADE — Egypt lobbied the more than 100 members of the Non-Aligned Movement on Tuesday to support Palestinian statehood at the United Nations this month, and said it believed a majority would do so after a two-day meeting of the group in Serbia.

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The Palestinians say they will push for recognition in some form when the U.N. General Assembly meets in New York, in a bid to strengthen their position before any resumption of frozen peace talks with Israel.

The United States is almost certain to use its Security Council veto against full U.N. membership, but the Palestinians could table a General Assembly resolution that would upgrade their status from "observer entity" to that of a "non-member state."

That would require 129 votes.

A two-day meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade, marking the 50th anniversary of its inception during the Cold War, ended without adoption of an official declaration.

But the Egyptian chair, Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr, said in concluding remarks that its members would "continue to support the Palestinian endeavors during the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly for the recognition of the State of Palestine based on the borders of the 4th of June 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital and to seek its admission as a full member in the United Nations."

Organizers said the remarks were on behalf of some 101 full members and observer states present. Amr later told a news conference: "There will be no official resolution coming from this meeting, but there's a feeling that the majority of non-aligned countries will support the U.N. resolution."

Organizers of the Belgrade meeting said membership of the movement was now 120, mainly Asian, African and Latin American states.

The Palestinians want recognition of independence in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Israel, which captured that land in 1967, sees the initiative at the United Nations as an attempt to undermine its own legitimacy.

Diplomats at the United Nations say it remains unclear how the Palestinians will proceed -- with an application for full U.N. membership, upgraded status, or both.

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Oracle's choice to nix Itanium support hurts HP sales

Filed Under: By: Larry Dignan August 19, 2011 5:55 AM PDT

Hewlett-Packard and Oracle are at odds over Itanium support and the former appears to be taking the body blows.

In June, HP filed a civil lawsuit in the Superior Court of California in Santa Clara to force Oracle to support the Itanium platform. In March, Oracle had said it would stop supporting HP's Itanium platform because Intel planned to shut it down in the long run. HP and Intel both denied Oracle's claims. The two parties last month exchanged courtroom jabs over Itanium support.

Now it appears that Oracle's Itanium decisions are impacting sales of HP's mission-critical systems. From a buyer perspective, putting off a purchase makes sense. Why would an Oracle shop buy an Itanium based-system if support was uncertain going forward?

Yesterday, HP CEO Leo Apotheker--amid a massive corporate revamp--acknowledged that the Itanium flap was hurting business. Apotheker said:

Revenue in business critical systems declined 9 percent year over year. This decline is sharper than expected as our ability to close deals has been impacted by Oracle's decision and orders are being delayed or canceled. We are working diligently to enforce the commitments that Oracle has made to our customers and to HP.

Apotheker referenced Oracle a few times in regards to Itanium. He also said that HP was taking Oracle to court over "anti-customer behavior." It's unclear where this Itanium spat goes ultimately, but for now the flap is freezing sales of Itanium-based systems.

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard) This story was originally published at ZDNet's Between the Lines .

If you have a question or comment for Larry Dignan, you can submit it here. However, because our editors and writers receive hundreds of requests, we cannot tell you when you may receive a response.

Larry Dignan is editor in chief of ZDNet and editorial director of CNET's TechRepublic. He has covered the technology and financial-services industries since 1995.

Your destination for the latest news on enterprise-level information technology, from chip research and server design to software issues including programming, open source, and patents.

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AUDIO: Murdoch has 'unanimous support'

Jeremy Darroch, chief executive of BSkyB, has said his chairman James Murdoch has the company board's "unanimous support".

Speaking to Lesley Curwen, he said that in his own experience, James Murdoch "had always acted with the highest degree of integrity" at the company.

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